Chapter 10 - The Next Step
The ethereal guardian was technically, his strongest offense and defense spell. It had no damaging effect on top of his natural element other than greatly enhancing all of his melee strikes. But this spell… The one he learned from the tome, will surpass it. This was it. Despite never casting it before, he knew in his spirit that it would be shown to the world for the very first time.
Amidst the chaos, a feeling of serenity washed over him. Benjin began taking breathing slowly and rhythmically, his eyes closed, drowning out all over sensations.
"LIGHT GODS…" he began, taking in the deepest breath he had taken in his life. A magic circle, one that was different, brighter, appeared in front of him before a luminous orb emerged.
"BELLOW!" All the sources of light; the lanterns, the reflections from the lake, even the miniscule amount of moonlight that peaked through the cloudy sky. All of them coalesced together in tiny rays, strengthening the spell, before a small beam, glowing with intensity bridged the distance between Benjin and the demon's exposed chest in an instant.
BOOMMMM.
The sound of the explosion echoed through the area. A cloud of smoke blanketing a good portion of the valley.
At this point, both boys were panting with exhaustion, where Jellal had dropped to one knee, trying desperately to catch his breath.
Neither of them had any strength to continue fighting, both were struggling to simply not fall to the ground. But despite their states, both boys had only one question on their mind.
"Did we… do it?"
Despite it taking only seconds for the massive cloud of dust to clear, Benjin felt as if it had been years since he bellowed the beam of luminous energy. There was barely an ounce of magic left in his body and his own vision was scrambled from his fatigue, while his rapid breaths matched the vigorous rhythm of his heart.
There's no way it could have stood back up from that!
As the smoke began to clear, the two boys looked down to see the rain dilute a pool of some sort of black liquid.
Is that… blood?
Moments passed before their downed adversary was visible. Its body becoming wet for the first time in hundreds of years, for the shadow and fire that kept it alive, no longer resided within its body. In the middle of its torso, where Benjin's spell had struck true, was a gaping hole that had replaced its heart.
A breath of relief came as quick as the shock as he too, fell to his knees. "Ha… haha. We did it!" He cheered in between chokes.
"Thank… fucking god."
"At this rate, defeating Nemesis will be a piece of cake!" Benjin began riding off the high of his success, a feeling of victory brewing from the godling's gut. If he could defeat one demon, then he - they - could defeat another! Slowly but surely, they would-
"You? Defeat the lord of Pandemonium?" A deep gargled laughter came from the demon's mangled voice, interrupting Benjin's thoughts. "Ha-HA-HA-ACK-HA-AC-HA." Despite its injuries, the dying demon showed no sign of stopping.
A tinge of fear creeped out the boy's previously confident visage. Why… is he doing that?
Once again, a sadistic grin worthy of the demon stretched across its blood-red face. "My power… doesn't even register compared to the greater ones…" Its previously glowing eyes glared directly to the blonde's.
Both boys blocked everything out to hear the demon's disgruntled voice; they could tell it had mere moments before it would die, but here it was, giving a monumental amount of effort just to speak.
Did it fight, in the war?
"Continue this path, and you…" it began, spitting out globs of blood just to continue. "S-sh-shall know," Its voice became quieter and quieter, gradually cracking up as it moved closer to its demise.
"Pain." Compared to its monstrous rumbling voice before, the way the demon spoke… was barely more than a dying whimper.
Benjin's demeanor completely changed as the demon took its last breath.
Just how strong IS Nemesis?
The reality of the victory began sinking down; the battle he tried so hard to win, one he did not even do alone; it didn't even compare?!
Glancing to his left with disbelieving eyes, he saw that Jellal had a similar reaction.
Just truly how strong was this demon? And how… weak?
"Heh." Benjin choked out. "Looks like… it's a long, long road ahead." The godling began chuckling sheepishly, seemingly finding the absurdity of their situation funny.
It wasn't long until Jellal joined in as well, choking out his own laughter before asking.
"Just what was that thing anyway?"
Scoffing at his question, Benjin prepared to answer. "It was a demo-"
"It was a Balrog," a new voice cut in. The two boys turned back to see the librarian holding Benjin's discarded umbrella above herself while an aura identical to the library's gently covered her form.
"What's a Balrog?" Jellal questioned, a quizzical look in his eyes.
Giggling, the surprisingly cheerful librarian answered. "It's a demon of shadow and flame from the Nether…"
"And?" Benjin cut in impatiently, amusing the older woman.
"…They are the most common of all demons, often used as foot soldiers by the greater demons."
Foot soldiers?
With widened eyes, Benjin stumbled towards the librarian, knocking Jellal out of the way.
"Hey watch it!" The blue-haired boy warned.
"Shut up I have an important question!"
In their short exchange, the purple-haired librarian could only giggle at the two boys' antics.
"That!" Benjin pointed at the body of the deceased demon. "Was only a foot soldier?!" A nod from the librarian.
The boy trembled in frustration, his eyes becoming bloodshot. "So you're saying… that we struggled so much just to defeat something that was already considered the weakest!" At this point, Benjin did not care if he was being an arse to the woman; he demanded answers, and he wanted it now!?
What the actual hell?!
The librarian recoiled sheepishly. "I wouldn't put it like that… the power of Balrogs can really differ from one to the other. This one was actually pretty average, more than enough to be a higher-class soldier."
Benjin was about to reply before being interrupted.
"I'm just as surprised as you but you don't see me being a dick about it," Jellal shot from the side.
"What!" Benjin began, his attention turned towards his battle partner. "Do you not see this?!" he gestured to his shoulder wound, "and this?!" then to the massive cut on his chest. "Look at you! You're completely fine! You just ran around the demon and attacked it when it was trying to kill me!"
"Well maybe if you dodged a little better you wouldn't have suffered any injuries in the first place!"
"Why don't you shove that grand chari-crap straight up your ass!" The two boys ignored their injuries, opting to get into each other's face.
"Shut up! You don't get to say anything when your eyes look like somebody pissed in it!"
Did he just insult my eye colour?
"Ok that is it!" Benjin raged, preparing to pounce at the crouching cosmic magic user.
"Aarrg!" Jellal grunted as he was tackled, before rolling back and forth trying to hit one another despite their condition.
Suddenly, a blue essence enveloped the bickering boys and lifted them up, pulling them away from each other.
"Boys!"
Said boys turned towards the voice, seeing a sickly-sweet smile on the face of the speaker.
"That's enough, don't you think?" Jellal and Benjin looked at the librarian, then back at each other, then to the librarian again.
"Fine."
"Yeah whatever."
Dropping them, the librarian clapped her hands and said cheerfully, "Perfect! Now come inside, wouldn't want you two to get rained on after you tried so hard to defend my poor little library!"
Little?
As the giddy woman skipped back towards the entrance, Benjin and Jellal could only wallow in their positions.
"…"
"Can you walk?" Benjin asked, regretting the tussle he had with his blue-haired companion after such a life-threatening battle.
"…Not anymore."
Turning to the librarian, Benjin called out. "Hey! A little help here?" The librarian did not react.
"Please?"
Right away, she turned to face them with the same cheerful expression. "Ah, of course! Ask and you shall receive!"
The boys could only nod and sigh at the librarian's antics.
Back inside the library, the Librarian, to the boys' irk, carried them all the way to what seemed to be a break room on the second floor.
"Well, that was…" Benjin began, still conflicted about being levitated all the way from the path.
"Something," Jellal finished for him.
Of course, the golden-haired boy was quite thankful for the strange-ish librarian for bringing them in… and for bandaging me up. Narrowing his eyes at Jellal, Benjin noticed the blue-haired boy did not sport any injuries other than… nothing.
Lucky sonuva bi-
"So, what now?" The blue-haired boy asked from his sofa-bed, eyes staring at the chandelier hanging in the middle of the room.
Benjin furrowed his brows contemplatively, crossing his arms behind his head to substitute for the lack of pillows. Jellal was right, what were they going to do now? While he was sure they had different reasons for arriving at the library, he had no idea what to do next. At this point, he had barely accomplished the very beginning of his supposed goal. He knew what he had to do; it just seemed… impossible.
Whatever, I'll just take what I can and get outta here.
"Just rest up and leave, I guess."
Jellal looked as if he was going to say something, but stopped himself, going into thought.
"What if we stayed here for a bit?" Jellal proposed.
Benjin raised an eyebrow, glancing at his companion. "You looking to read some more books?"
"Just one; I didn't get to finish what I was reading before I heard the explosion."
Benjin looked down at the floor, thinking of how Jellal had to risk his life to help him defeat the demon.
"Oh."
Well at least he's not hurt.
Not knowing what to say, Benjin looked back up at the ceiling. The rhythmic drops of rain and cackling of the fire place made a tranquil environment. Both boys simply stared upwards in silence, neither willing to start conversing again.
Perhaps some sleep would do me some good.
The next day, Benjin woke up to the morning sun shining directly on his face, filling him up with energy.
Thank god it finally stopped raining!
Letting out a loud yawn, the light mage groggily got up the bed before taking out the first drink he could find in his storage.
Absentmindedly, he poked his wound from yesterday, eliciting a painted grunt.
Fuck! Argh… why did I do that.
As he took a sip from some weird looking vase, he noticed that Jellal was sleeping the floor, his hair and his blanket a complete mess.
Hmm… idiot.
"PFFT!" he spat, letting out all the liquid that was in his mouth earlier due to the disgusting taste. What was that anyway? He was pretty sure he only had water in there! That tasted like some sort of bitter, rotten, grapes!
I'll just drink later… shit.
Getting off the sofa, Benjin walked out of the break room, looking to go back to the ancient magic section to satisfy some of his own curiosities. There were surely many types of magics that could be very useful. Sure, learning something out of his affinity would probably take years and years just to master it; although, there might be some easy-to-learn spells that could definitely help.
Maybe some sort of 'fly' magic? THAT would be so great it would be insane!
As he made his way back up the stairs, he saw bits of crumbled rock and wood where the pieces got larger the closer he got to the top floor.
Don't tell me…
When he made it to the top, his eyes widened in shock as he saw what exactly happened to the ancient magic section.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!
The entire section came down on itself! All the books were scattered in with mountains and mountains of stone! How was he supposed to find new magics now? Everything inside had probably been destroyed!
How did this even happen?!
Earlier… As he looked down do the point of contact, he widened his eyes. From where the demon had struck his ethereal armour, was a massive spume of fire and shadow all pushing around his spell, spewing backwards straight into the library.
Damn it! If he had beat the demon back earlier, then it wouldn't have the chance to fire his attack! Thankfully, it was only that one section; the librarian must have protected the library with some sort of barrier spell - the same one that blocked him from jumping over the moat.
Shit among shit!
Suddenly, a hand put itself on his shoulder.
"AHH!" Benjin snapped his head backwards, just to see the tattooed face of his friend.
Jellal put his hands up in caution. "Whoa, relax! it's just me!"
Sighing, Benjin looked back on the destruction, walking towards the hall before bending down to see a relatively untouched book.
The beginnings of force magic. Huh, doesn't seem too useful… meh, I'll grab it anyways.
"I was going to read some books about magic I can use, but that plan just went straight out the window," he spoke dismissively, putting the force-magic book into his storage.
As he turned around, Benjin saw Jellal walking towards the middle table, which had a massive piece of the ceiling imbedded directly on top.
"Well," Jellal began, his hands reaching for a book that had been completely crushed by the falling debris.
"The book I was reading was utterly destroyed."
"…"
"What were you reading anyway?" Benjin stood up, rummaging through the rubble to look for more books.
Jellal simply stared at his demolished text, frustration building up quickly as he would no longer be able to find out the secrets to the true form of his magic.
"A book… on my magic."
"Oh."
Benjin looked back at Jellal, who simply stared back with an annoyed expression.
"Well I'm just going to be here then, salvaging what I can from this wreckage."
The blue-haired boy crossed his arms with a huff. "Hnn."
A few moments later, Jellal simply sat down the floor, before kicking his legs up on a chair and just… lying there.
Well I'll just let him do him.
Continuing on, Benjin looked through as many crevices as he could to find anything that was still legible. All the auras of the books were completely mangled and - wait, auras; that's it! Why didn't he think of it earlier? It was the exact same idea that found him the book on Solarin, and he could do the same to filter out damaged books! Then, he can simply take everything that was in an okay condition in one fell swipe.
Genius!
From his back, Jellal could only stare at the blonde-haired boy weirdly patting his own back while laughing to himself.
Similar to before, Benjin closed his eyes and focused his senses, drowning out all the sounds, smells, and even sight until the only thing he could see was the dancing myriad of colours that represented each and every book's essence.
There they are…
As he continued to narrow down his senses, further and further, he was able to make out that many of the books had some sort of black speck in its aura while others didn't. Those must have been the ones damaged beyond repair; but wait! Even if it got smashed partially, it could still be read.
Hmm, should he take all of them just in case?
As he contemplated, he thought of missing all the useful books while taking all the useless ones simply because they were damaged.
Yeah screw it, I'm grabbing all of them.
Slowly, he connected his aura to the individual essences of each book. As soon as he felt the connection was solid, he began dragging them one by one into his storage dimension through golden rippling portals.
What is he doing?
The blue-haired boy simply stared at his library companion, watching him plant his hands to the ground while remaining perfectly still.
Not knowing what Benjin planned to do, Jellal simply grabbed a piece of wood from the nearby rubble, throwing and catching it up and down.
This should get his attention.
…
The books were almost completely taken - and if nothing has happened so far, it meant the librarian didn't have a problem with him 'borrowing' all these books that really no 12-year-old should have.
Nice, he smirked to himself, only having about ten books left before he was done. Now then, what would he read first? He still didn't know where he was going after the library but now he would have a way of killing boredom if it came to it. It was actually quite exciting just to think about sitting down and looking at all the different types of magic unknown to him! Maybe there was some sort of infinite meat spell? My mouth is watering just THINKING about that! All he needed was to-
Whack
"Ow what the hell!" Benjin's concentration suddenly wavered, causing the books he was carefully storing to rocket out of the portals, ricocheting around the destroyed hall before finally falling onto the floor.
Thank God they weren't that damaged… I can't say the same for the brain of a certain blue-headed mongoloid.
"Are you so bored that you have to screw me over?"
"You were acting weird, so I had to get your attention." Benjin scoffed at his words, he was not in need of any aid, and certainly not in need of a random objects being thrown at him!
"I was doing MAGIC; you could have just waited for five seconds and I would be done!" The blonde stored the rest of the books in four seconds to emphasize the point.
"Well I didn't know that!"
"YOU DIDN'T KNOW… yeah you know what?" Benjin began to walk out of the room, intent on leaving the library. "I'm not going to argue about this with you. I just got a bunch of books on magic and I am not letting you ruin this for me."
"…Flashlight," Jellal quipped, intent on getting the last word.
Grr…
"Don't call me that!" Picking up one final book, Benjin stomped out of the library, hastily leaving the building with the other boy close behind.
As they began walking out of the entrance, Jellal quickened his pace to match with Benjin's.
"Where do you plan on going now?"
Right, he still did not know where he was headed. All this time, the Temple called him through his pendant. But now, he no longer felt such a pull, so whatever he could do, was up to him.
I'll figure it out later.
"Don't know, just going to head west and go from there." Jellal raised an eyebrow at his words.
"I know of a place where we can go."
Oh?
"And just where is that?"
Benjin was getting impatient, Jellal simply stared forward in silence instead of saying the place. People can't just do that, leave such a big question unanswered and just not talk! That's… bad practice.
Another ten seconds passed, before Jellal finally spoke up.
"I heard it from a…" The blue-haired boy's mouth stopped moving, his eyes drooping while he slowly began looking down. "from a guy, we should head to Fairy Tail."
"Fairy Tale? That doesn't even sound like a real place," and it probably isn't; that name itself meant something that's not real, and definitely was not a place.
"No," Jellal corrected, shaking his head. "Fairy T-ail, as in the body part tail."
Benjin simply stared at Jellal, his apparent correction not making his words making any more sense than it was originally.
"Alright, I'll give, just how do we get to this… Fairy T-ail?" He emphasized the 'a' sound to mock the blue-haired mage.
Grunting in annoyance, Jellal simply looked into the distance, thinking of an answer. "Somewhere in Fiore."
Not caring for the vague description, Benjin simply scoffed into a chuckle, a look of purpose plastered on his face.
It's not much, but…
"It's a freaking start."
Inside the library
Velvet, accompanied by a young woman behind her sorting books, were looking outside of the main window.
"They are quite something aren't they, sparkle?" The librarian asked her purple-haired daughter.
"Who?!" The teenaged girl asked back.
Giggling in response, she simply stared at the form of the retreating boys, then glancing to the statue that reminded her of years long, long past.
"Nothing!" she chirped, a small owl landing on top of her shoulders, giving a small 'hoot'.
It's been hundreds of years hasn't it… I wonder, what will your son and his friend bring to this changing world?
…
Solarin…
…
As the two boys continued walking west, neither of them noticed the library flickering in and out of existence, until disappearing into a thin ray of light altogether.
.
.
.
.
Chapter 10 and Book 1 Completed! Next Chapter: Book 2: Rise of the Light Bringer!
Who can figure out Velvet's true identity? And no not from their fandom reference XD
Thanks for those of you that read Book 1, now off to Book 2!
Make sure you guys check out my other stories!
Join the discord server at (/d)iscord.g(g/)EPp7EU!
Read my profile and join my Trope discussion forums!
[Rise of the Light Bringer]
[Chef Ramsay]
[A God's Redemption]
[A Hero's Becoming]
[The Noble World]
[The Nothing Dragon Slayer's Misadventures in Fairy Tail]
[Minipa's Trope Discussion and How to not Suck Shit at Writing]
[Minipa's Trope Discussion and How to not Suck Shit at Writing - BNHA]
Check out my Youtube Channel: Minipa!
Minipa, out!